The double path of gain and loss
It seems that I’ve been on a philosophical tear as of late. Sorry, folks, tonight is no different. If you have little stomach for it, click next now.
Listen to the words of the Buddha, contrast two teachings: "Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it” with “not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” On the true path, these are the same truth, there is no conflict between them. You must give your heart to your work only in the present moment, not to dreams nor to history.
This truth has been hard for me to follow but today, it revealed itself fully. I have been only seeing a dream for many months now. A dream that I have finally come to realize cannot come to pass. Worse yet, this dream has corrupted my view of the true world I live in, preventing me from giving myself fully to it. With this revealed so clearly to me, I am forced to give myself to the present moment and forced to rediscover my world and my place in it.
What that dream was is not the concern. It might just have well as been that I am but a frog on lily pad as anything. The real point is that I've let too much of myself live only for that dream; that I've made it too important to me and that I've lost myself from the present moment – the truth – because of that. The lesson to be learned is that am I no more that frog than I am the lily pad. The best thing I can do now is to return to work of discovering my real world.
"Through zeal, knowledge is gotten, through lack of zeal, knowledge is lost; let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss thus place himself that knowledge may grow." |
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